B and I dived the North & Brothers itinerary on MV Tala, flying into and out of Hurghada. Red Sea Explorers handled the transfers, taking us straight from the airport to the boat, and from the boat to the airport on the last day. We booked the diving directly, and the flights separately with Easyjet from Gatwick North direct, tho’ another option would have been EgyptAir via Cairo, which would have included 2×23Kg bags each, rather than the 32Kg bags that Easyjet charged us a fortune for (I think we could have managed with the very slightly cheaper 29Kg option). We chose RSE simply because they are the GUE facility in the Red Sea, which is the guarantee of quality. Of the 18 planned dives we did 16, sitting out 2 night dives to chillax with a beer 🙂
| Dive | Location | Description | Max/Avg depth (m) | Runtime (min) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fanous East | Checkdive to sort out weighting and thermal comfort | 13/9 | 47 |
| 2 | Salem Express | A penetration into this famous wreck, surfacing just after sunset. Shot some video inside. | 30/18 | 56 |
| 3 | The Brothers | Small Brother, saw sharks | 31/16 | 60 |
| 4 | The Brothers | West side of Small Brother | 31/18 | 46 |
| 5 | The Brothers | Small brother again, with more sharks | 30/15 | 54 |
| 6 | The Brothers | South plateau of Big Brother. Nice but uneventful. | 30/18 | 48 |
| 7 | The Brothers | North plateau, wrecks Numidia and Aida. Would be good to come back on mix and have a proper look at them, they were just below MOD for 32%. Negative entry off the RIB to 10m. | 36/18 | 53 |
| 8 | The Brothers | South plateau | 22/12 | 50 |
| 9 | Abu Nuhas | Wreck of the Giannis D, which I have done before, but its a good one 🙂 | 20/13 | 62 |
| 10 | Thistlegorm | Strong current and unfortunately bad viz. Penetrated the forward section, saw the locomotive lying off the portside. Every time I dive her, I am dismayed at how much she has deteriorated since the last trip. | 30/17 | 56 |
| 11 | Thistlegorm | Night dive | 22/15 | 42 |
| 12 | Thistlegorm | Down the shotline to the bow, through the holds to avoid the current, then around the stern | 31/18 | 50 |
| 13 | Rosalie Moller | Down the shot amidships, around the bow, back around the stern then up. Only around the top of the deck at 34m – would love to come back and do this as a mix dive. | 34/21 | 38 |
| 14 | Gubal Island | Wreck of the Ulysses and many, many friendly dolphins | 24/15 | 46 |
| 15 | Siyul Soraya | A gentle drift dive with lots of life | 23/14 | 60 |
| 16 | Carless Reef | Double pinnacle with lots of life | 15/12 | 63 |
| Total | runtime: | 831 |
The skill of the guides and captain was very apparent in that we often had the dive sites completely to ourselves, the only boat there. I have been on Thistlegorm for example on dayboats where there are over a dozen boats tied on, and 200-odd divers in the water, it’s insane, but having the leisure to explore it without anyone else was infinitely better. Definitely worth paying the premium for! Another thing worth a mention was the trip onshore to visit the lighthouse on Big Brother. Kit wise, I wore my Argonaut drysuit with Icebreaker 200 baselayer, no hood or gloves, and identical to the UK kit configuration otherwise. The cylinders were twin manifolded AL80s (11.1ℓ each) with which I used a 3.6Kg v-weight, so pretty much the same weighting as I’d have with a BZ200 undersuit and a steel twinset in the UK or Malta, which is very handy to know for the future. My SAC averaged about 18ℓ/min, which is normal for me, we were often surfacing with 100 bar in our twinsets limited more by 1hr dive times or no deco limits (or currents). All this might seem like odd kit configuration for a recreational trip in warm 25℃ water, but it’s what we’re used to now, and gave me the opportunity to practice a few skills ready for a Fundamentals upgrade to Tech pass evaluation, the weekend after we got back.
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